What I want to do
by DAve and Bob
Summary: An Equalist and a Bender have a worthless conversation about what it means to be important to the world and why they should or should not be selfish. And the good points about being a winner and the good points about being a loser.


**Selfish**

"Hey...I didn't expect anyone else to be here," It was the only body of water that wasn't completely contaminated as the black haired teen simply gaze at the edge of the pond, if one could even all it such a thing.

The body of water had been there for quite sometime, but the teen didn't recall a brown haired woman sitting in front of it before, he wondered if it was added to attract idiots, but one must wonder what would be the point of such an exercise.

"Ah really? I, actually come here often, though I haven't been able to visit lately," The woman was smoking something, perhaps some sort of pipe as the teen frowned. He knew she was a woman, but he doubted she was that much older than he was, as he sat on the grass.

He would have preferred to be alone, though it was just unlucky that someone else was here, though it probably wouldn't have mattered if he got there before the woman. Though the term woman may have been too lenient, she probably wasn't much older than the teen. As she closed one of her eyes, her hair was messy, like it hadn't been combed in days as she closed one of her eyes. "Do you smoke, I don't mind letting you have some, though you might need something to light it,"

It was a casual question as the teen sighed. "I don't do that kind of stuff," Not because he was under age, but because it wasn't good for him, after all letting poison like that into your body was just asking to get sick.

"Oh a prudish guy, or maybe it's because you're too young," The woman laughed as she ran her figures through he long brown messy hair, "You know some guys find smoking attractive, because of the smell or because some find the image of a woman blowing smoke mature, though that might just be me," Silence fell on the duo as the woman sighed, it seemed the person next to her wasn't the talkative type, though worthless chatter was most likely better than what was happening currently.

"Hey, you hear about the new council member? Apparently he's a non-bender, I guess the movement wasn't a complete waste, though I doubt it's going to fix anything. I'm willing to bet the only reason they were brought in was just to calm the non-benders down. Man political stuff really is garbage, it seems the more I see of the world the more I realize how selfish people are," The woman blew a ring of smoke from her mouth as the teen closed one of his eyes.

"...That really has nothing to do with me," Another rather simple blunt response as the woman grumbled slightly, she didn't know if it was just his personality, or if he really didn't care.

"Hmm, well I guess that news probably is worthless to someone who can bend, I assume you're a bender," The woman smiled, her emerald eyes were quite piercing as the teen took a deep breath before exhaling, he didn't know why he did that action considering it reveled he was in fact a bender.

"Ha, when you act like that it's pretty easy to tell that you're a bender," The woman leaned back, as she looked at the body of water, she was about to say something odd, but it was something that she needed to get off her chest. "You know, a few months ago, I probably would have hated you, or at least have treated you differently...I'm actually not a bender," The woman reveled such information.

"Yeah, not long ago I probably would have done everything in my power to make your life miserable, which is pretty funny. Benders never really did anything to me, or for me, they never hurt anyone I knew, they never harmed me, but in the end I still disliked them. Even if it was only for a little while, there was a time I was actively working against them," The woman mouth twisted into a frown, it probably wasn't too hard to deconstruct what her statement was and what she did not too long ago.

"That's why I joined the equalist, because...I guess I wanted to feel a little important, hehehe, funny now that I think about it, it's their fault my apartment got destroyed during the invasion," The woman paused once again as she took a deep breath, she was bored, so she told a guy a story.

"You can hate me...I just thought I'd get that off my chest," Silence fell as the black haired teen spoke once again.

"That has nothing to do with me," It was a surprisingly annoying statement as the woman grumbled, she didn't know if she should have been angry or relieved at his reaction as she took another puff of her pipe.

"You sure you don't want to try?" The woman asked once again as the teen simply shook his head.

"No, I don't smoke, though I don't hate the smell...I actually quite enjoy it," The teen pointed it as the woman gave a small smile, "With that said, it's a waste of time trying to be an important person, after all we are all born with a certain amount of worth. That worth goes up or down depending on what we do in our lives and how lucky we get, some people are simply going to naturally have more and be able to do more than others. Some gaps simply can't be crossed no matter how much you work, certain people can only get so far no matter how much hard work they pour into it. In the end, you'll probably end up always working under someone," It was surprisingly negative as the woman held back her laughter.

"Sheesh kid, did someone kill your goldfish or something?" The woman groaned as the black haired teen smiled. It was probably the first smile he ever shown, at least the first one the woman ever saw.

"When there are winners, there are losers, that's how the world works...but there are certain perks with being a loser. You get to be more selfish, people depend on you less so you can do what you want when you want...at least most of the time. Being an important person means that you won the game of chance, but as a result you are held at a certain expectation. I doubt being the Avatar is as fun as it seems, when people are constantly hounding you to do things for them. The fact that the Avatar has to be selfless means we can be as selfish as possible." It seemed the teen had his life made out as the woman scratched the back of her head, who knew a teenage boy would be thinking about things such as that.

"Ah, so let the important people carry the weight of the problems while we goof off, that's actually not too bad of an idea...well as long as you don't mind being called selfish," The woman chuckled a little as the teen leaned back, the grass no doubt felt nice as he continued his thought process.

"Well, there are billions of people on this planet after all, there will _always _be someone else to take care of problems, whether it be the police force or the Avatar. As long as I'm happy and alive, I really couldn't care less about the silly notion of bettering the world," It was a selfish thing to say, but perhaps that was the point as the teen finally lifted himself off the grass. Looking at the body of water.

"Hmm, your apartment got messed up right? You can stay with me if you want, it's not like I have anything better to do," The boy said such a thing so casually as the woman scoffed, she was no doubt trying to hold back a laugh.

"Didn't you just say that we should be as selfish as possible? Doesn't this seem rather contradictory?" The teen simply shrugged as the woman stated that fact.

"Who said I was doing it because it was the right thing to do, like I said, I do what I want, just like you can refuse my offer if you want. I won't stop you,"

Silence fell onto the scene once again as the former equalist simply smiled.

"You know, I'm not going to stop smoking,"

The teen simply replied casually.

"Don't worry, I actually like the smell,"

**Author note**

**I could have added more to this, but I thought it would ruin how simple the story is supposed to be. With that said, I can keep it a one shot or continue it if you want. Nothing really important comes from this story, just an idea of how life works and what not.**


End file.
